We would like to say a big thank you to all of our volunteers on International Volunteer Day! Whether it is helping at our shop, driving around London collecting our donation pots or supporting our team in the office we couldn’t do what we do without you.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer please contact h.rainey@londonsairambulance.co.uk

Due to technical challenges we have regrettably had to cancel the performances of A Very Victorian Christmas on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 December. The show will now run from Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 December at 7.45pm with a Saturday matinee at 3pm. If you have booked tickets for the Tuesday or Wednesday, you will shortly be contacted by the Box Office. Alternatively, please contact them directly on info@putneyartstheatre.org.uk or call 0208 7886943.

The council is asking for the public’s views on whether it should retain its current licensing policy that restricts all-night drinking at pubs, bars and nightclubs in Wandsworth.

Since licensing laws were changed in 2005 to allow pubs and bars to stay open longer, the town hall has made it a priority to protect local residents from the impact of late night drinking.

This has meant that virtually all of the borough’s licensed premises are only allowed to stay open until midnight during the week and no later than 2am at weekends.

Councillors have always believed that allowing these places to stay open very late into the night is inappropriate in a largely residential borough like Wandsworth.

There are over 1,000 local businesses that hold a liquor licence and nearly all are situated either adjacent to or very close to residential properties. Without reasonable controls on opening hours, councillors believe that many of their neighbours would suffer unacceptable noise levels, especially from customers leaving these premises late at night or in the early hours of the morning when background noise levels are much lower.

The council believes that the existing controls on opening hours serve residents well and strike the right balance in allowing local businesses to flourish.

However, now that three years has passed since the last review, councillors say it is important that members of the public are given a fresh chance to have their say on the policy.

Residents and businesses are now being asked to take part in a public consultation and to say whether or not the current system should be retained or if more relaxed opening hours should be permitted. This consultation will continue until January 17.

Chairman of the council’s regulatory licensing committee Cllr Martin D Johnson said: “Our policies were originally drawn up following extensive consultation with residents, local amenity groups, the police and businesses involved in the drinks and entertainment industry.

“Three years on it is only right and proper that we ask the question again to make sure that our policies continue to properly reflect the views of local residents and also those of businesses.

“We believe that our policy strikes the right balance between protecting the interests of residents, taking steps to combat crime and disorder and also promoting the borough’s night time economy.

“Wandsworth has a substantial residential population and it is our duty to ensure that business activity does not have a detrimental effect on the quality of life experienced by local people.

“There are nearly 1,000 licensed premises in Wandsworth that are permitted to sell alcohol. It is important that we take steps to ensure they do not create unnecessary problems for their neighbours and the wider community.”

A number of parking pay and display machines in Wandsworth are currently being targeted by thieves. The council is working closely with the Metropolitan Police to identify and arrest those involved.
If you hear or see anyone tampering wi…th the underside of a pay and display machine, (particularly if this is at a time when the parking controls are not in operation, for example, late at night or in the early hours of the morning) and you believe that someone is attempting to break into the machine, call the Police on “999” and report it as “a theft in progress”.
The council is promoting the use of the Parkmobile pay-by-phone service which enables motorists to pay to park using their mobile phone. For more information and to register for the service, visit www.parkmobile.co.uk.
A free Parkmobile App is available for smartphone users (e.g. iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile). More information about the Parkmobile App is available here:

Every year more and more of us are searching and buying our gifts over the internet, rather than battling the crowds in the high street, and every year fraudsters are finding new ways to move our money into their pockets.

Christmas is a time for celebration, a time to be with friends and family. Unfortunately it is also a time when fraudsters cash in, using cons old and new to exploit people’s good will and ruin their festive period. During the Christmas period last year, consumers lost over £12.4m to fraudsters through online shopping and auction scams and over 8,000 were defrauded by bogus websites.

We have teamed up with the City of London Police, Action Fraud and Get Safe Online to provide consumers with information and advice to help them avoid becoming a victim of fraud. The Twelve Online Frauds of Christmas is a compilation of typical online-related frauds that we suspect criminals may use over the festive period. Coupled with advice aimed at keeping the criminals at bay, the Twelve Online Frauds of Christmas is designed to help prevent people from becoming a victim of this type of crime.

By being aware of these cons and scams, you can avoid your savings ending up in the pockets of fraudsters rather than being spent on presents.

To keep up with what we are doing and to help us spread the word, follow us on twitter #noteveryoneisasniceasyou. For all the latest advice about online shopping fraud, you can also see Get Safe Online at www.getsafeonline.org.

If you feel you have been a victim of these frauds, or any other, you should report to Action Fraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk

Hello, I am not Paul McGregor but my name is Hebe and as part of Takeover Day 2013 I shadowed him for a day on 22 November. Thirty five children from Wandsworth schools worked with senior leaders across the borough. We were all given the chance to experience their line of work for the day. So what did I do?

Well there seemed to be many meetings to go to and people to meet and greet. I started with a crime-fighter meeting closely looking at Wandsworth police performance. As borough commander for the day, I can tell you that crime is down by over 10% over a rolling year for the seven priority crimes identified by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. The officers seem really pleased that they have seen a reduction this year in theft person. Burglary and robbery are also both down. It surprised me how much research is undertaken by those in the Wandsworth borough police to cut down on crime.

After the meeting drew to a close I went on to chair the senior leadership meeting. They discussed future planning of operations tackling crime next year. We looked at many recommendations for officer commendations for excellent police work, but I think all members of the police force should be congratulated. They all deserve a commendation to me.

Paul McGregor writes…

Thanks Hebe you and your fellow ‘boss for the day’ Phoebe (who was my Chief Inspector of Operations) did an excellent job looking after the borough. It was great having you working with us and yes there are too many meetings!

Having Hebe and Phoebe with us was a reminder that we have new generations coming through and some will be looking to the police as a future career and if these two were anything to go by, the future looks very bright indeed. It is important that we attract a representative workforce in the Met. On Sunday 24th I spoke at an event in Tooting aimed at encouraging more young people to consider a police career. This was part of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime drive to encourage wider representation amongst black & ethnic minority candidates for a career in the police. I am grateful to Pastor Noel McClean and the congregation at Yahweh Christian Fellowship for hosting the event. The food afterwards was excellent as were the individual conversations that took place.

This is clearly a time of firsts for me. As well as handing over the reins to Hebe, I also hosted my first live Twitter forum. I am grateful to the various comments and questions we fielded which ranged from questions about police numbers, to my view on which was the better patrol car, the Rover SD1 or the Ford Capri (in the interests of completeness, the SD1 every time!). Some of the questions also reinforced to me how London-wide concerns impact on people locally and we dealt with a number of questions about road-safety.

Along with the rest of the Met, we are contributing to Operation Safeway which is a campaign of education, prevention and enforcement in relation to road safety. As with everything we do, we are acting impartially and enforcement action has been taken against motorists and cyclists alike. We all have a duty to take care on our roads and try to prevent the tragic loss of life that has been brought into such sharp relief in recent weeks.

Next time I write, we will have started our pre-Christmas campaign and I will let you know what we have planned and how it is going but until then, rest assured my team and I are doing all that we can to make Wandsworth the safest borough in London.

’POT IN THE FRIDGE’ is an effective way to store information on your Medical Conditions, Next of Kin etc. so the emergency services can find it. Call 020 8871 8919 or e-mail communitysafety@wandsworth.gov.uk

A new service which could help the save the life of a vulnerable person was launched by the Wandsworth Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association in partnership with Wandsworth Council, emergency services and other local agencies.

The ‘Pot in the Fridge’ scheme was launched by the Mayor of Wandsworth, Cllr Diana Whittingham at the Leonard Cheshire Day Centre in Randall Close last week. The scheme introduces an innovative way for people to store important information about their medical condition, which could help the members of the emergency services to help save their life.

Everyone on the scheme is issued with a clearly labelled plastic container in which an information sheet is stored. Information can range from details of someone’s medical condition, medication and next of kin details. Each container is then stored in the fridge and an ‘emergency information’ sticker is placed on the fridge door to indicate that the pot is stored inside. This information is then readily available to the emergency services in case of an accident in the home.

An emergency sticker is also placed on the inside of the front door in a prominent place so that emergency services can identify that the resident is registered to the scheme.

Cabinet member for social services, Cllr Vanessa Graham also attended the launch event. She said:

“ This is a simple, yet effective way for people to store information about themselves.
In effect, just one small plastic container could ultimately lead to someone’s life being saved and members of the emergency services and care agencies will have quick and easy access to vital information needed to treat someone who may have fallen victim to an unexpected emergency.

In Wandsworth there are almost 14,000 residents over the age of 75, and although this group is considered most at risk, the scheme can benefit other vulnerable people.”

The new scheme was launched in Wandsworth after members of the Wandsworth Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association identified the need for such a provision.

The Pot in the Fridge Scheme is supported by Wandsworth Council, the London Fire Brigade, the Metropolitan Police, the London Ambulance Service, Age Concern Wandsworth, the Wandsworth Primary Care Trust, the Leonard Cheshire Foundation and Young’s Brewery.

Funding has been secured to supply 50,000 pots to homes across the borough. Pots have already been distributed amongst doctors surgeries, surgeries, day centres and sheltered housing schemes in Wandsworth.

Post navigation

Subscribe to Schubert Road's posts:

Leave Blank:Do Not Change:

Your email:

Important Note

While the co-ordinator and other organisers of Schubert Road Neighbourhood Watch (“the organisers”) post advertisements for third parties in good faith, they give no representation or warranty about the goods and services which are advertised. In particular, the organisers have not taken any steps to test the quality of goods and services or to establish the qualifications and experience of service providers. The organisers therefore make no claim that goods are of merchantable quality or fit for purpose or that services will be of a satisfactory standard. You must therefore rely exclusively on your own enquiries tests and judgement. If you accept goods and services from people advertising on this blog and things go wrong, the organizers accept no liability to you.